j lo gives the crasher one heck of a look and then the universal sign for get out of here. the man who is a ukrainian tv personality was arrested backstage for trespassing. don't mess with jenny from the block. and 28.4 million viewers tuned n the second highest audience in 20 years. >> it was a good show. >> it's getting good reviews. >> i thought he was great. a lot of good performances. i love that jenny went back to her roots. get out of here. >> not afraid. >> this is "first look" on msnbc. stay tuned. "way too early" with guest host mark halpern live from washington starts right now. for the second straight morning, americans here on east coast waking up to major international news. good morning. i'm mark halpern.

welcome to "way too early," a few hours ago north korea's state media reported the country detonated a nuclear device. a test that seems to been timed to coincide with president obama's state of the union address this evening. this adds a new dynamic to the president's speech in which he was planning to call for a reduction in america's nuclear arsen arsenal. the underground test was the most powerful to date. if confirmed this would mark north korea's third nuclear test since 2006 and the first since kim jong un took over the country. the test follows tightened sanctions imposed by the united nations after the north defied earlier resolutions and carried out a controversial rocket launch. when coupled with recent threats toward the united states, today's actions raise new concerns in washington and around the world particularly in asia about north korea's intentions of becoming an all out nuclear power with missile capability. they're also concerned on the par of united states about north

korea's nuclear ties to iran whose weapons programs are also great concern to the united states. the united nations security council scheduled to meet this morning at 9:00 a.m. eastern time to address the situation. as always, north korea you have to watch closely to see what china does. they have mixed feelings about how to deal with the problem. around 2:00 a.m. washington time, president obama issued a statement in his own name reading in part, "this is a highly provocative act that undermines regional stability and increases the risk of proliferation. the united states remains vigilant in the face of north korea provications and steadfast in our defense commitments to allies in the region." this is an evolving story developing all over the world. we'll have more on the north korea situation on "morning joe" and all day here on msnbc. tonight 9:00 p.m. eastern time, president obama's going to deliver a state of the union address. it's a speech that's going to focus on his long-term ideas for the country and also deal with the pressing economic issue that is unfolding now, those are the

sequester cuts that kick in the first of march. can you expect the president to talk about it in tonight's address. >> you'll hear from the president a very clear call for the need to take action to help our economy grow and help it create jobs. you will hear from him a wall as he have heard in the past recently from him on congress not to shoot the economy in the foot unnecessarily, to allow the sequester to kick in when it is wholly unnecessary to do that. senate democrats are looking to have a bill ready by thursday that would head off the $8$85 billion in automatic spending cuts. new revenue is not part of the solution that republicans including the senate minority leader mitch mcconnell are looking for. >> unless senate democrats allow a reasonable spending cuttal

terntive to pass this chamber before march 1st, the president's plan will go into effect. look, they knew this was coming more than a year ago. and, yet, they still haven't put ford forward a serious proposal of replacement spending cuts. what a colossal waste of time. >> president obama also expected to call for gun control legislation in tonight's state of the union address. vice president biden continuing on monday to take the message on the road. he met with a group of lawmakers and some police officers in philadelphia. that's all part of the white house push to do something about guns, especially on the issue of universal background checks. >> the voices of those young children, babies, up in sandy hook have been silenced. but i really do believe that this is one of those occasions where if we don't speak out for them, if we don't -- if we

remain silent in the face of this tragedy, i think we're going to be judged really harshly. joining in this white house push on guns, over two dozen law makers are going to host violence victims and their relatives in tonight's address. michelle obama will be joined about it parents of 15-year-old hadiya pendleton who was gunned down. two gang members were charged in the chicago honor student's murder. police say the gunmen mistook the teen's friend for a rival gang member. that's when they came upon them and opened fire. pendleton's father is ecstatic by the news of the arrest. he hopes the parents of other innocent victims never have to endure the same thing. that other big story from overseas, leaders of the catholic church are going to be looking for a new pontiff after pope benedict announced yesterday he is stepping down. the decision stunned even his

closest aides even though the 85-year-old hinted in the past that his age and waning strength could force him to resign. he was elected in 2005 and will stay on until february 28th. his plan to meet for that secret enclave to select a new leader. we have a report from vatican city. >> reporter: the day after the shocking announcement that he will resign on february 28th, more details are emerging about his decision. the vatican's own newspaper said that this decision was taken at least a year ago after his trip to cuba and mexico in march 2012. that's when the pontiff realized he's just too old and too weak to perform his duties as the holy father including, of course, long distance travel. while the speculation now is ripe whether there is any other reason behind his decision. in an interview in 2010 during the scandals that engulfed the

vatican and the catholic church including the pedophilia scandal and later the butler scandal with him leaking documents to the italian media, the journalist asked him whether it was right for a pontiff to resign over such scandals? he said, not in times of difficulties but maybe in times of peace when in a peaceful moment one has a right to do so. this is a peaceful moment. the butler has been sentenced to prison and later pardoned late last year and now it is a time for the pope to just let go and let another person take over the reigns of the catholic church. what's going to happen now? well, february 28th at 8:00 in the evening rome time, he effectively stops being the pope, he zdoesn't have any more powers over the catholic clutch and will stay in his summer residence outside of rome until a new pope is elected and then

he'll retire to a life of spirituality in a convent inside the vatican. mark? >> thanks so much. back here at home, vice president joe biden reacted to the pope's resigning. we still don't know what joe biden plans for 2016 but there is one role at least we know he's ruling out. >> i'm not running. >> this is a man of great integrity and looking out for what he believes is the best interest of our church. i admire him for it. i think it's been 713 or so years since anyone's ever done that. i think he sets an incredibly high standard. >> all right. just days after calling president obama's national security nominees second rate, former vice president dick cheney's doubling down on that criticism. he took aim at former senator chuck hagel. president obama's nominee for defense secretary in particular.

>> the president's motives are for picking chuck hagel, i think he wants a republican to go be the foil, if you will, for what he wants to do to the defense department which is i think do serious damage to our military capabilities. >> the senate arms service committee is set to hold a vote on hagel's nomination. senator john mccain who clashed with hagel says he's not going to join fellow republicans who have threatened to walk out on the vote. finally, a former army sergeant has become just the fourth living american soldier from the afghanistan war to receive the medal of honor. clinton romesha was recognized yesterday for defending an american outpost from hundreds of taliban fighters. despite being wounded in battle, the soldier attacked enemies and also helped save many of his fellow troops. >> he lives the soldier's creed. i will never leave a falling

comrade. so he and his team started charging as enemy fire poured down. and they kept charging, 50 meters, 80 meters, ultimately 100 meter run through a hail of bullets. they reached their fallen friends and they brought them home. there are many lessons from cop keating, one of them is that our troops should never, ever be put if a position where they have to defend the indefensible. but that's what these soldiers did for each other in sacrifice driven by pure luck. all right. not to be outdone by his dad, his young son collin entertained the crowd before the ceremony. it was super cute. msnbc had that live. president obama said that little guy actually had also been racing around the oval office in advance of the ceremony. adorable. all right, as always, you can let us know why you're awake. shoot us an e-mail or tweet me

at mark halpern. we'll read the best responses related to babies and other things during the show. still ahead on "way too early," the eagles make a big announcement on the future of michael vick. we'll tell you if he plans to stay on in the city of brotherly love next in sports. and later here, stephen colbert is a good catholic but he has a big bone to pick with pope benedict for stepping down early. that's when "way too early" comes back here on msnbc. ♪ >> 143 were released today. 116 in north vietnam, 27 in south vietnam. they are the first of four groups of american pows. the other three groups are expected to be released at two week intervals for the next six weeks. [ female announcer ] going to sleep may be easy, but when you wake up

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it's difficult to walk. imagine driving. >> it's nasty out here. >> right now we got about five inches. >> this is definitely treacherous. >> yeah, let's open the mobile weather lab here if i can. i think it's starting to freeze on us. >> traffic on the freeway seems to be picking up. >> you okay there, john? >> the snow is almost stinging new the face. >> the snow is actually changed to icy mix. it hurts as it pounds you. >> horizontal stinging snow here. boy, that is helping to keep the wave action down. >> it fully feels like shards of glass as it hits my face. >> maybe go inside would be a good idea. >> you're looking live nation's capitol, the capitol build wing where president obama will be to deliver the state of the union address. now we move back inside for mark twain's favorite weather man bill karins with the weather and meteorology from all over america. >> i don't go outside. the studio is nice and warm.

>> yeah. >> there's no reason to go out there. >> totally. >> maybe some day. let's talk about what we're dealing with out there this morning. we have a little snow out there for our friends in northern portions of new england including upstate new york. the white on the map shows you the snow along the new york state thruway, maybe a little slippery. and also we have a little snow exiting areas of maine. everyone else, though, is looking just fine. a little further to the south, we have rain and snow, a minimum of it out there. watch out driving on i-40 in texas of all places to day. snowing in amarillo, texas. eventually that's going to move its way towards oklahoma city later today, more or less towards tonight. even oklahoma city could have three or four inches of snow. by your standards, that's a big deal. that's going to cause a lot of schools to have early dismissals or cancellations in the next two days. we'll watch that story for you. otherwise, out there today, we're looking pretty quiet. it's still going to be a little rainy down there in the deep south. today's fat tuesday, of course with, mardi gras. new orleans on and off showers.

maybe a thunderstorm 7 o degr0 . it will be periods of rain. atlanta, a few showers for you. what a nice day, by the way, washington, d.c., 52 degrees an sunny. midwest, no problems. west coast looking okay. just some showers in seattle. if you remember yesterday, i teased you and told you we have to watch the potential for a big storm on the east coast this upcoming weekend. it still looks like there is going to be a big storm. the trend is further off shore. so we're still going it deal with the cold blast behind it. maybe not a heavy snow event in areas like boston or new york or maybe even further south. so again we'll watch it in case it trends that closer to the coast. as of now, mark, we're looking okay for the upcome being weekend. so we didn't need another big snowstorm general way. mother nature being kind to us this time. >> ladies and gentlemen, bill karins. bill, thanks, man. appreciate it. >> see you soon. all right, in the best of "way too early" tradition we go right over traffic straight to sports and take a look at some nfl news. michael vick is going to stay in philadelphia for one more season parentally. he'll be taking a major pay cut

to stick around. vick restructured his six-year, $100 million deal that he signed in 2011 and the new deal got a lot of incentives in it. it's a one-year deal that could pay him $10 million a year. vick is going to make a base salary of 3$3.5 million this season. that is a lot less than the $15.5 million he was scheduled to make. vick will get a chance to compete with nick foelz for the starting job in training camp. pretty well paid as a backup. now we go to round ball. celtics trying to push the rondoless winning streak to eight games if they can get wayne over the bobcatsment we pick it up with less than 30 seconds to go. raymond sessions hits the jumper. bobcats in the lead. they may be tired after that triple overtime win we told you about yesterday. final seconds, celtics with the ball. off the rim here. bang! avery bradley gets it. can't get it to go either here on this shot.

bobcats hang on to win it 94-91. that is just the 12th victory the season. all right. clippers taking on the sixers. we don't really care much about the game except for this, wow! watch that dunk. griffin defies gravity. watch it again here. griffin switches hands, takes it up, throws it down. ferocious left hand slam. one more time. that dunk, i'm willing to say right now may end up being dunk of the year. it certainly at least a candidate. clippers go on to win the game, who cares, 107-90. a great shot from girls high school basketball in colorado. final seconds third quarter friday's game. anna olson of lewis palmer high school. watch this. wow! circus shot indeed. gets the bounce, banks it off the glass. didn't actually count as a three because it bounced before it went up there and in. but she is not too upset. i know you want to write this

down. lewis palmer went on to win. here it is one more time. bounce. in the hole. they go on to win this one by the score of 30-22. love that. all right. coming up at the top of the hour on "morning joe" live from washington, we'll preview tonight's state the union address at the roundtable and cokie roberts and michael steel will join the conversation. plus, david gregory and chris matthews and chuck todd. when we come back here, we're going to huddle up around the water cooler and we're going to fry up facts about bacon. it's no longer just for eating. we'll explain that.widely surpa i thought was achievable. i mean look at it. it sparkles. >> we'll explain that bake cony outfit when "way too early" comes back. [ male announcer ] no matter what city you're playing tomorrow.

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all righty then. we told you at the top of the show that search begins now for the man who will replace pope benedict as the leader of the catholic church n a sharp break with tradition, pope benedict announced he'll resign on february 28th due to his age and health. if you want to sound smart

today, tell your friends boep benedict will become the fifth pope in the past 1,000 years to resign their post. all right. enough with the real news. we're going to gather around the water cooler to talk state of the union speculation. tonight president obama will emphasize the economy, climate change, immigration. we don't know. wait no longer. jimmy fallon got ahold of this exclusive sneak peek. >> together we have grown as a nation from infancy to adulthood. we've grown up. not unlike that clydesdale from the budweiser super bowl commercial. farmer is in his car, looks in the rearview mirror. and there's the horse racing toward him. you know, in a frantic gallop.

and they reunite. they embrace the horse nuzzles the man's face as if to say thank you. and all the while stevie nix is singing that song "landslide" in the background. ♪ well i've been afraid of changing ♪ ♪ because i built my life around you ♪ >> fallon does a brilliant john boehner. let's accept that. ever wonder how the iowans with pass the cold winters in the noncaucus years? he got bacon lectured and a full on pork celebration. this year's blue ribbon bacon festival in des moines, iowa, more than 10,000 pounds of bacon

were consumed. the true test to bacon love is who would wear this handwoven bacon dress worn by, of course, the bacon queen. here she is, america, your 2013 queen of bacon. that's kim fanabaker. she was the bacon queen after this inspiring pork rendition of run dmc's "tricky." >>. ♪ i met this little baby i had to leave real early ♪ ♪ this bacon is greasey all it says is eat me ♪ ♪ it's bacon it's bacon, bacon, bacon ♪ ♪ this bacon is so fine it's so fine to eat some bacon ♪ ♪ bacon, bacon, bacon >> i'll admit i have mixed feelings about us having just

shown that. pope benedict set to step down. catholic stephen colbert is eyeing the window. >> benedict is out on february 28th. the calls of cardinals may not elect a new cardinal until the end of march. do you realize what this means? we could have an entire month without no infallible person on planet earth. there will be no rules. it will be like a catholic free for all passing out pez dispensers full of birth control pills, using the lord's name in vain, killing anybody you want. it will be like being a presbyteri presbyterian. >> all right. still ahead on "way too early," why are you possibly awake right now? your tweets, e-mails and texts are next and "morning joe" live from the capital with gentlemen scarborough himself just moments away.

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